Strengthening the Role of Cities in Coastal West Africa to Address Hate, Extremism and Polarisation Through Enhanced National-Local Cooperation

Publication Date:

23/10/2023

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— 3 minutes reading time

On 11 – 12 October 2023, the Strong Cities Network convened more than 40 mayors and other city officials, civil society organisations (CSOs) and national government actors from Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Togo to discuss how city-led efforts to prevent and respond to the increasingly localised threats posed by hate, extremism and polarisation can be advanced through enhanced national-local cooperation (NLC) in each country.

Supported by Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the workshop was the second in a series[1] to raise awareness and promote the application of the NLC Implementation Toolkit, which Strong Cities developed on behalf of the Global Counterterrorism Forum (GCTF) to facilitate the localised operationalisation of the GCTF’s 13 good practices on strengthening NLC in prevention and countering violent extremism (P/CVE). The Toolkit was launched on 19 September 2023 on the margins of the opening of the 78^th UN General Assembly in New York.

In her opening remarks, Berenice Owen-Jones, Australian High Commissioner to Ghana, reinforced Australia’s commitment to addressing the growing threat of terrorism and extremism in West Africa and emphasised the importance of partnerships and collaboration across all levels in meeting this threat. Speaking on behalf of the Mayor of Accra, Douglas N.K. Annoful, Chief Coordinating Director of Accra’s Metropolitan Assembly, shared some of the work his city is doing to work in partnership with different actors across levels and their commitment to pursuing a whole-of-society approach in the city. In his welcome remarks, Colonel Tim Bataabana, Director of the Fusion Centre of Ghana’s Ministry of National Security, provided an overview of the threat picture facing the region.

Using the NLC Toolkit as the framework, workshop participants identified the gaps and opportunities in the region to promote a whole-of-society approach to preventing hate, extremism and polarisation. The workshop included a series of plenary discussions and small group table-top-exercises to explore each of the Toolkit’s six pillars individually and reflect on varied approaches to strengthening NLC to support more effective and sustainable city- and other locally-led prevention efforts. In addition to enriching the discussions, these insights will feed into the regional NLC mapping currently being conducted by Strong Cities’ local partner, the West Africa Centre for Counter-Extremism (WACCE).

Key findings from the workshop included:

Despite devolution efforts, centralised security-based approaches to addressing violent extremism and related localised threats remain the norm across the region. The role of local governments in addressing these challenges is limited. This is due to a number of factors, including ones related to their mandate (or lack thereof) and lack of trust from their national counterparts, particularly when the latter is led by a different political party.
Civil society and local governments have important roles to play in whole-of-society approaches to prevention in the region, which need to be formally incorporated into government strategies.
Traditional actors and institutions – such as village chiefs, elders and religious and other community leaders – can play a critical role in promoting credibility and sustainability of local and national initiatives to prevent hate, extremism and polarisation. They are crucial for raising public awareness about government-led efforts to address these threats and secure buy-in at the community level.
Existing local dialogue mechanisms can be utilised to overcome high levels of mistrust and exclusion that hinder NLC efforts among community, local government and national government actors.
Dedicated funding is needed to support city and other locally-led efforts to prevent hate, extremism and polarisation, including ones that benefit those most susceptible to radicalisation to violence and recruitment to violent groups. This is especially important for rural towns and remote cities that can face more intense resourcing challenges compared to larger urban centres and those directly connected to the capital city and national seats of government.

[1] The first NLC workshop was held in Montenegro with local and national actors from around the Western Balkans. The third will be organised in the MENA Region in late 2023 or early 2024.

Strengthening the Role of Cities in Coastal West Africa to Address Hate, Extremism and Polarisation Through Enhanced National-Local Cooperation

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